This invention relates to a light-sensitive silver halide color photographic material which is high in sensitivity, excellent in gradation reproducibility, color reproducibility, ground whiteness and gives a sharp print image, more particularly to a light-sensitive silver halide color photographic material excellent in description of three-dimensional feel such as brilliant red cloth or face, etc. or details.
In the present invention, the light-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer bearing primarily cyan color image formation means a silver halide emulsion layer having a color sensitivity bearing the highest image density when the silver halide emulsion layers in which cyan color forming coupler forms color related to developing of said silver halide emulsion layer are classified according to color sensitivity. When there are a plurality of layers of silver halide emulsion layers having substantially the same color sensitivity, the color difference from the minimum density portion when the coupler which forms color related to developing of the whole of these layers is color formed to an image density of 0.4 may be questioned.
As the cyan color forming coupler which can be used in the light-sensitive silver halide color photographic material according to the present invention, any coupler which can give the color difference between the color formed portion and the minimum density portion when this is color formed alone to a density of 0.4 (color difference .DELTA.E in the CIE 1976 L*a*b* color space) of .DELTA.E.gtoreq.23 by use of a light-sensitive silver halide color photographic material having a reflective support can be preferably used. Of course, although it is possible to use a mixture of cyan color forming couplers under the conditions which satisfy the above-mentioned conditions, but it is not preferable to mix a coupler of another hue therein.
The color difference between the color forming portion and the minimum density is obtained by exposing the light-sensitive silver halide color photographic material to a light with an appropriate spectral composition, developing this and unexposed sample at the same time and determining the three stimulative values X, Y, Z of the color patch obtained according to the method described in JIS Z-8722, determining the respective values of L*a*b* according to the method described in JIS Z-8729, and further determining the color difference according to the method described in JIS Z 8730.
Even if a color patch with a cyan image density of 0.4 cannot be obtained, provided that color patches with two concentrations sandwiching this therebetween is obtained and the density difference is sufficiently small, the color difference at 0.4 can be estimated with sufficient precision.
Light-sensitive silver halide color photographic material has been used today very abundantly because it has high sensitivity as well as excellent color reproducibility and sharpness. Particularly, recently, there are remarkable improvements of color reproducibility with a color negative by use of a novel DIR compound. Also, in color paper, there has been made improvement of reproducibility by employment of a pyrazoloazole type magenta coupler or improvement of sharpness by employment of a novel anti-irradiation dye, improvement of original paper, which improvement contributing to color reproducibility, sharpness.
Generally speaking, gradation, color reproducibility, sharpness of-color print image are related to each other, and if gradation is harder in tone, the color reproduced becomes more sharp, whereby the image appears to be sharper. For this reason, in the field of photography for amateur, from the standpoint of ideal gradation reproducibility, the design is becoming to be made toward the side of hard tone, and the improvements of the performances as mentioned above have not still reached the stage where scramble between these performances and gradation is cancelled under the present situation. This is partly because, when a large amount of an anti-irradiation dye is employed, there are such drawbacks that the dye may sometimes remain in the treated print to deteriorate the white ground, lower the sensitivity of the light-sensitive material, that the photographic performances are susceptible to temperature and humidity during exposure, whereby no sufficient improvement effect could be obtained.
By use of a color negative with intensified interimage effect, a problem has been newly caused to occur that no reproduction of delicate shade at red high density portion cannot be effected (red saturation phenomenon), etc. Also, separately from this, such problem as deficient three-dimensional feel of human face in group portrait of persons has been pointed out, and such performances have not been sufficiently improved according to the method as described above.
As a method for improving the red saturation phenomenon as mentioned above, Published Technical Report 85-3445 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 91657/1986 disclose a light-sensitive material which adds a dye which does not substantially contribute to hue formation of the image in a region with a constant value of the density of at least one image dye set between 1.2-2.5 so as to have a gradation. More specifically, there are disclosed the method in which a limited green-sensitivity is imparted by adding a limited amount of a green-sensitive sensitizing dye to a red-sensitive emulsion containing a cyan color formable coupler, the method in which in a sensitive material having green-sensitive layers of high sensitivity and low sensitivity, a limited amount of a cyan color forming coupler is incorporated in the low sensitivity emulsion layer, the method in which the color mixing prevention ability of the intermediate layer is made limited, the method in which developing of the photographic emulsion in the cyan color forming coupler containing layer is accelerated by use of a development accelerating agent releasing coupler in the low sensitivity emulsion layer, etc.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 67537/1987 discloses a light-sensitive material, which is a light-sensitive material having a plurality of light-sensitive layers with the same color sensitivity and contains in the emulsion layer bearing the high density region and/or the adjacent non-light-sensitive layer at least one coupler which forms color to different hues in at a relative coupling speed to the coupler contained in the emulsion layer may be 0.7 to 0.01 in such amount that the maximum color formed density may be 0.03 to 0.40.
Otherwise, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications Nos. 258453/1987, 68754/1989, 100046/1990, 129628/1990, etc. disclose similar techniques.
However, these techniques mean ultimately mixing other dyes in the place where the color formed amounts of the respective dyes of Y, M, C corresponding to the complement colors depending on the amounts of the three primary colors of B, G, R should be controlled, and it has been extremely difficult to control gradation without accompaniment of deterioration of color reproducibility. Particularly, when printing is effected from a color negative utilizing the strong interimage effect which is liable to cause red saturation phenomenon to occur, in a scene of an artificial landscape such as playland, even the drawback that the red color with high chromaticity may be reproduced to a color which is dark and low in chromaticity may be sometimes conspicuous.